Blog
The Benefits of Taking a Gap Year
Have you heard of the expression ‘gap year’? It is the year when a student takes a break from study to travel, work, or volunteer. Typically most students take their gap year around the age of 18 when they finish high school and before starting university, but what do you think of the idea of
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How to Deal With Difficult Family Members
Did you watch the marriage of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle? Even if you are not a royal fan you would have heard something of the shenanigans of her family in the lead up to the wedding. Her brother penned an open letter urging Prince Harry not to marry her. Her sister said ghastly things
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Seven Simple Ways to Give to Your Community
I am perplexed by the phenomenon of selfie photos. People visit beautiful places or meet famous people, and yet the experience is not ‘real’ unless the individual takes a photo of his or herself centre-stage. It’s a self-centred world, and yet clearly placing the focus on ‘self’ does not lead to happiness. About a million
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What is Lucid Dreaming and How Do You Lucid Dream?
In my last blog I wrote about the purpose of dreaming, today I want to look at ‘lucid dreaming’, which is effectively about controlling and directing your dreams. I have a friend who is learning how to lucid dream and he’s asked me to write this blog. I am not a lucid dreamer – however
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The Importance of Sleep and Dreams
Have you ever wondered if dreaming serves any purpose? More importantly do you know what purpose sleep serves? Today I want to blog about why we dream and the importance of sleeping. What prompted me to explore this? My friends know I write these blogs and every so often a friend will ask me to
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How To Be Happy When You’re Middle Aged
In my last blog I looked at research that found people’s level of happiness declines when they hit their 40s and 50s. Studies in England and America show that people experience their unhappiest or least satisfied years when middle aged. The good news is that our happiness rebounds when we hit 60. In fact the
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Why Work-Life Balance Is a Myth
The chief executive officer of Amazon has dismissed the notion of ‘work-life balance’. Amazon CEO Jess Bezos says he tells all new staff at Amazon that they need to abandon this notion of ‘balance’ between their professional and personal lives. Instead Bezos thinks people need to cultivate a holistic relationship between work and their personal
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Why it is Essential to Pursue Happiness as You Age
One of the most beautiful pieces of writing in the world is undoubtedly the US Constitution, which states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However it
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The Key to Developing Resilience
In life there is no one-size-fits-all guide to success. Some people have a dream run to the top – they are born into wealthy families, get a first-class education and are offered their dream job on a silver platter. And you know what, some of them aren’t truly happy! They have never been challenged, never
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Eight Ways to Build Your Resilience
In a previous blog post, I began a conversation with you about resilience and outlined a comprehensive study of people who had suffered trauma. The key findings were that we are more likely to recover from setbacks if we know we are in control of our own lives. People who allow themselves to feel powerless
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How Men And Women Behave On Dating Websites
I love it – a new study of dating sites found that about 75 percent of all smiley photos uploaded to these romance sites, are uploaded by women! Why is it that women are happy to look … well … happy, while men want to appear more serious. The same study of hundreds of dating
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What You Need to Know About Health-Related Anxiety
I recently had a friend staying with me who suffers from severe health-related anxiety, formerly known as hypochondria. Hypochondria is now considered a value-laden, judgemental word. My friend only stayed three nights, but the list of illnesses he believed he had is too long to list. He began by telling me he had a sore
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